Think like a publisher

I’m super excited to let You all know that our first, very own app is now available in the App Store on iTunes. Normally I’m not soliciting downloads and ratings but in this case I’ll make an exception – If You like what You see please go to…

…and download the app for free and give us a rating in the store (this will help us tremendously)

The app was build from scratch – with my bare hands – using Adobe tools such as InDesign PublishingSuite and so on… I could never have done this without being a subscriber to the Adobe Creative Cloud which has opened up completely new playgrounds for me.

Much has been said – and is still being said – about think like a publisher and this project is my take on it. I believe that the new technologies and new-media has given each and everyone of us a golden opportunity to craft and distribute our own story.

Digital future

Infographics are all the rage right now – and rightly so, since they are excellent tools to illustrate otherwise hard to grasp and somewhat abstract scenarios. Just seeing these graphs makes it much easier to fully understand the profound shifts we are witnessing -and living right now.

Personally I was really struck by the fact that developing for android has now caught up with developing for iOS -even though the money still seems to stay with iOS.

The biggest surprise, however, was the fact that almost half the worlds population is on-line! That in itself is a huge opportunity (and challenge)
In short, here are my take-away’s from this excellent deck.

My first, self-published book (powered by BLURB) is now available on-line. Over and over again I’m struck on how easy and effortlessly anyone with a internet access can “tell their story” and essentially bypass “traditional” media and middlemen.

Artist Talk with Casey Reas, filmed at Intel Labs in April 2012
Artist and UCLA professor Casey Reas discusses his own artistic practice, focused on process-driven generative artworks that build upon the tradition of artists like Sol Lewitt, except using software as a medium. He also talks about Processing, the immensely popular open source creative coding language he co-created with Ben Fry.

I just signed up for Rebel Mouse, a social media aggregator that pulls all Your content from various social media platforms together in one place. I’m pretty much an early adopter, jumping head first into a lot of new things without thinking about it too much.

“Learn as You go” means that You try things out without too much hesitation and debate… If it sticks – well then it sticks. If not – well then it just sinks to the bottom. no big deal!

With the rise of mobile everyone needs to re-think their web prescence. Enter OnSwipe that re-packages Your website for a mobile experience in a few minutes, and like a lot of things these days, for free!

With the mobile web set to overtake the desktop web within a year or two it’s absolutely essential for anyone to start optimizing for an increasingly mobile user. More and more people makes crucial choices on a mobile device and if they cannot read or navigate Your site on a smartphone or tablet they will just leave. Period.

Now there are a number of solutions and I have already touched upon like Mag+ tablet publishing solution which is a very affordable way (starting at free…) of publish Your content to both an iPad and Android but today I’d like to highlight the free and very nifty application OnSwipe

Very simply it re-packages Your RSS feed from Your sources into a mobile experience and within a few minutes I managed to gather 4-5 sources (my Website, WordPress blog, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter feed etc..) and published them. The best thing about this service is that by adding a snippet of code to Your source the source site will recognize any mobile visitor and deliver a mobile experience to them.

… just quickly take a look at the image above which is the old fashioned marketers worst nightmare. We all hate dumb, boring advertising and now, thanks to technology we can choose to bypass it completely! This is a great example of the new disruptive technologies that changes marketing – and everything else! No ads in Your browser is now a reality thanks to tools like AdBlock.

“The most popular Chrome extension, with over 4 million users! Blocks ads all over the web. AdBlock for Chrome! Block all advertisements on all web pages, even Facebook, Youtube, and Hulu. It works automatically: just click “Add to Chrome,” then visit your favorite website and see the ads disappear!

I thought I should put together a curated post of my favorite digital resources and how I use them in my workflow.

PhotoShelter – My principal website is a PhotoShelter website and there are so many great things to say about them but within this limited format and apart from the obvious quality of their offering I’d like to highlight their unwavering commitment to publish great articles on a variety of photo related topics and their engagement to educate us photographers. I recommend You to start by checking out all the free reports and tools here

Behance Network – The world’s largest Creative Network with an amazing array of valuable add-ons… Publisher of the Creators Project dedicated to the celebration of creativity, culture and technology. The Creators Project Blog is probably the best blog on art & technology in my opinion. My secondary site is built on the Behance framework.

Glossom Network – Creative Network runner up who recently has proven that they mean business… A bit more analogue and less “techie” than Behance with several really great blogs covering photography, design, fashion… You name it.

HubSpot Stop pushing & Start attracting. Stop interrupting & Start engaging… HubSpot publishes a never ending stream of super valuable content covering marketing and SEO. They also offer You a number of great tools, start with their free Marketing Grader and check out their free reports and goodies here. I have learned a lot from their reports and I read their RSS feed everyday…

Google+… and all other G products with an honorary mention to Google Reader and HangOut. I’m seriously feeling warm and fuzzy about all the great tools Google offers us – for free !!! Google+ is much better than Facebook, I actually read my stream on G+ which is not the case on FB.

HootSuite – Manage multiple social media channels and become effective… Free tool – or pay for a premium offer… You choose. HootSuite lets You manage all Your social channels from one place, = effectiveness.

Twitter – Meet and engage with new people… Anyone looking for a “bare bones” social media presence need to include twitter, it’s that important in my opinion.

Facebook Page 800 million users and 1 out of 6 online minutes is spent here… Even though G+ has stolen the thunder lately I believe You need to have a Facebook presence as well…

Google Analytics – Free, absolutely indispensible tool to understand what’s going on and if Your digital strategy is actually working out !

WordPress Blog – blog the right way… This blog is built on WordPress !

Pinterest – the new hot kid on the block… Supposedly driving massive traffic back to You… I haven’t really seen that yet but some users report that Pinterest drives more traffic than Twitter and Facebook together !!!

YouTube – Since I do produce a fair amount of moving image I need to be on both YouTube and Vimeo

Vimeo – Since I do produce a fair amount of moving image I need to be on both Vimeo and YouTube

Tumblr – hip, young and fashion centric.. For me, as a fashion photographer, a very important resource.

… oh, by the way… The word-cloud was created using the free Wordle tool

Just a quick shoutout to Jeanette Rokas, stylist who is running Rokas Prestige, a very forward thinking and tech savvy swedish beauty portal. I had the opportunity to work with her recently during my fashion photography workshop at Fotoskolan Göteborg and she really impressed me with her vision and outlook on the fashion and beauty business.

During our lunchbreak we had a long discussion about technology and how social media is changing everything. Jeanette is a firm believer in openness vs. keeping secrets and her portal is a testament to all this. The blog is frequently updated by a slew of guest bloggers and she actively encourages people to submit material.

– No Fear

– Learn as You Go

– Just ship it = when You’re almost perfectly happy with the project, just ship it !